Premier Darrell Dexter said yesterday he will refuse to take money for chairing a committee that never meets.
Every year the premier of Nova Scotia makes $2,060 for chairing the Internal Affairs Committee. The last time it met was the fall of 1994.
Dexter said yesterday he wasn’t even aware of the issue until the story made the media rounds last week, but he won’t accept money for nothing.
“I wouldn’t take money for work that I didn’t do,” he told reporters yesterday after the annual state of the province address in Halifax.
Dexter said the issue flew under the radar even when he was opposition leader.
“I have to say I wasn’t aware the committee had never met, even though I was apparently on it for a number of years,” he conceded.
Fittingly, dealing with the issue of dormant committees would have to go through one of those very committees. The Assembly Matters Committee, for which the chair is paid $3,090 annually, deals with such issues. It hasn’t met in four and a half years.
Dexter said he is going to look at the committees and decide whether they should be brought back or dropped altogether.
“I think they should meet. If there are committees there and they have a legitimate role, then the question is why haven’t they been meeting?” he said.
On the other hand – “If there is no role for it then we should wrap it up.”
